Book Review: The Green Room by Wendell Rodricks

Title: The Green Room

Author: Wendell Rodricks
Publisher: Rain Tree (Rupa Publications)
Pages: 356
Price: Rs 595
Genre: Non Fiction / Memoir / Autobiography
Rating: 10/10

Format: Hardbound

At the onset, ‘The Green Room’ stands out because of its gorgeous cover page – a black and white picture of Malaika Arora Khan in Wendell Rodricks’ famous mussel top, and the yellow colour spine.

‘The Green Room’ is a personal memoir by Wendell Rodricks about his life, his many passions and inevitably, the fashion industry, when he is completing 25 years of being in the business. If you think this book will be full of fashion jargons and about a rich lifestyle, you cannot be more wrong. This book is about a person who is driven by his passions, and who rose above his humble beginnings to realize his dreams. It is about a person who has lived his life well, who is content in what it has to offer and who makes the best of the opportunities, always eager to learn.

In ‘The Green Room’, Wendell Rodricks sets the pace with the ambience and feel of a green room, which is essentially the backstage room during fashion shows where models get ready. The early chapters are about his family tree and its roots in Goa, his humble early life in a glorified chawl at Mahim (Bombay), graduating from Dadar Catering College in pursuit of a glamorous career in hospitality, working as summer trainee at Taj Mahal Hotel and starting his professional life at Centaur Hotel (Santa Cruz, Bombay). He moves to Muscat for better opportunities and money to support his family income.

Muscat, in retrospect, had a far reaching impact on his life. He met his love and long time partner Jerome in Muscat, and with his support, changed his career track and went on to pursue fashion. Wendell Rodricks studied fashion in Los Angeles and later in ‘the fashion capital of the world’, Paris.

The book chronicles Wendell’s journey through the years – his ordinary early life, returning back to India to flag off his career in fashion (and ‘put India in his clothes’), teaching fashion students at SNDT, Mumbai (as he would say, he was “born to teach, to guide, to mentor”), his stint at the prestigious Garden Silk Mills, his First show ‘The Premier Collection’ for Glitterati, international acclaims, some stand-out shoots which made him famous, his articles for a myriad of publications and different subjects, setting base in his beloved Goa putting his promising career at stake, his fascination for Goa and its culture, stint at FIT, association with the first Lakme India Fashion Week, his path breaking work with Braille in fashion (the Visionnaire collection), involvement with environment conservation, his brush with politicians and politics while at IFFI, legalizing 21 years old relationship with Jerome by signing PACS, promoting Goan culture and Goa artists, researching Pano Bhaju (the old Goa costume), his extensive, enviable trips around the globe and many such important events and engaging snippets of his life.

He talks extensively about his shows, inspirations for clothes, how a designer works, the making of a fashion show, behind the curtains incidents, and yet it is never boring or repetitive.

In the early chapters, he also highlights the things which reflect the early indications of a designer’s eye, for example, the detailing of his aunt’s dresses, the sketches he made while in Muscat, the spectacle that stayed with him from childhood which he would later recreate in his clothes or shows.

He has kept the book delightfully above any controversies or scandals of the fashion world. He is also quite matter-of-fact about being gay. He handles it sensitively, and points out that while people look at the sexual element of gay love, for him it was just a celebration of love. 

He is a natural storyteller and a gifted writer; picking anecdotes and events, and relating them with the same gusto and detail as they would have occurred.

He is often funny.

“One day, Mr D told me to go to Salalah. ‘By buffalo,’he said. ‘I have booked it!’ He was joking, I hoped.

The Buffalo turned out to be an old World War II aircraft …..”

“I would not do another film again even if they dragged me by hair, I decided. Seven years later, however, I was happily on the sets of Madhur Bhandarkar’s film Fashion.”

“There were three vanity vans in the lot where film was being shot. On one was a sheet of paper that said ‘Priyankaji’. The next said ‘Kanganaji’. The third – yikes – ‘Wendellji’!”

He is full of wisdom.

“There would always be people with less or more, I figured, and there is no point in comparison. Even now, I am always content and hold to the belief that the best things in life are free. The stars in the sky, the monsoon rain, the pleasures of a walk on the beach …”

“I sat later on a parapet, over the bridge under which Princess Diana

 would die so tragically a few years later, looking at the Eiffel Tower with tear-blurred eyes. Madame Saint Laurent was right – I had to put India into my clothes. I needed to go back to my country.”

He is amusing.

“I watched in horror as she came hopping down the ramp with mincing geisha steps. What the hell was wrong? Then I saw it. The dimwit had put both her legs into one palazzo leg. And then, horror of horrors, because the other leg was dragging on the floor, she had picked it up delicately to hold like a sari pallu or dupatta. The other models grinned and zoomed past her as Madam Mannequin continued to hobble on the ramp.”

He fittingly describes ‘Fashion’ as “that magical world of youth, colour, beauty, glamour, exotic travel, luxury, passion, ambition, corruption, intoxication, scandal….”

The most extraordinary thing about Wendell Rodricks is his relentless pursuit of knowledge, his passion for life and childlike enthusiasm for new things. His passion for fashion, traveling, food, Goa, culture, history, heritage, art and music; and the love and warmth with which he talks about his partner, are hard to miss. His enthusiasm for life is infectious and inspiring.            

He comes across as a prolific personality, and a fitting prodigal son of Goa.  He heaps praises on people who believed in him and supported him in different phases of his career, but most of all, his partner, who encouraged him and believed in his dreams.

At some point in the book, I stopped evaluating the book and style, and got deeply interested in him as his person and his life. This book is for everyone because simply put, it is about a person who accomplishes so much despite his modest beginnings.

P.S. At the end, my head was spinning with the information on all the traveling he has done. He has visited a mind-boggling 269 countries and 965 cities (at the time this book was being written).

Read Excerpts from Wendell Rodricks' The Green Room

Image source: flipkart.com

Book Review: Powder Room by Shefalee Vasudev

Title: Powder Room

Author: Shefalee Vasudev
Publisher: Random House India
Pages: 335
Price: Rs 399

Format: Hardbound
Genre: Non Fiction / Fashion
Rating: 10/10

Madhur Bhandarkar’s movie ‘Fashion’ was the first to explore what is little known to the general people, like me, of the world of fashion. But like all his other films, the characters were too unidimensional and the story was largely put together by mix-and-match of some controversial scoops from the Fashion world. There were no insights. It looked what it was – an outsider’s view of the workings of the Indian Fashion. It was high time an insider threw some light.

I first read about this book here, and I was hooked. Fashion is such a fascinating subject. Moreover, I had a ‘Fashion Designer’ phase while growing up, so I am pretty well-versed with a lot of fashion designers and models. I think Sushmita Sen winning the coveted Miss Universe title was a defining moment for Indian Fashion industry. Atleast my generation, which was still in school, took notice of this field. I even had a ‘Fashion Journalist’ phase. But today in retrospect, I am glad I did not become either.  I am not cut out for the Fashion world. I hardly care about clothes now (I mean the latest trend and not wearing!).

‘Powder Room’ by Shefalee Vasudev, an ex-Marie Claire editor and a journalist for 15 years writing on popular culture, social trends and fashion, attempts to offer a 360 degree view of the Indian Fashion industry. She interviewed 300 people within the scope of her book to understand what ‘fashion’ means to them. What came out eventually in the form of a book is an expansive view of Indian fashion industry –it takes into account how everyone perceives fashion and how fashion touches everyone and its impact, which is surprisingly far reaching and wide-spread. This book is as much about the elite class who can afford the latest luxury brands as much it is about the middle class shopper who gets a replica made for considerably low cost.

With a fetching cover page, the book is divided into ten chapters, each focusing on a distinct aspect of fashion. ‘Powder Room’ packs a lot in its 330-odd pages. Here are a few glimpses:

The famous fashion designer Raakesh Agarvwal talks about fighting his personal demons, getting overwhelmed by the downside of fashion world to getting back on track and finally getting acclaim. Jennifer, the Sales girl with a luxury brand, admits to the conflict between her middle class personal life and the professional one surrounded with luxury brands and elite customers. Ludhiana ladies make dream customers for the luxury brands in their eagerness to lap up every latest offering. The super rich splurge on designer wear but India has a huge middle class which cannot afford those expensive clothes, and thus the emergence of darzi culture.

It was also refreshing to read about all kinds of models - where there are desperate ones like Nagma, eager to do whatever it takes to make it big; there are also the practical ones like Laxmi Rana and a lot of other senior models who have learnt to draw the line and keep their sanity. There are observations about Naga culture and fashion, and surprising lack of organized retail stores in a fashion conscious state.

While Rohit Bal stands out for the luxurious clothes he creates and the dramatic way in which he presents; Sabyasachi Mukherjee also has a huge following for his clothes which are distinctive and original. He is obsessed with Indian weaves, textiles and embroideries, and goes all out to revive, sustain, contemporarize the traditional crafts. The story of Patan Patola sarees and Salvi family actually mimic the fate of a lot of original Indian weaves and crafts. Without their openness to experimentation and any unique marketing strategy to make those traditional weaves aspirational for the young generation, the art is sure to get lost in the near future. 

The fashion media consists of stylists and editors from fashion magazines on one hand, and journalists who cover fashion as a segment for the mainstream newspapers on the other hand. The former focuses on insights and latest trends while the latter thrives on controversies and scoops. And finally the much talked about fashion world politics – feuding fashion designers, multitude of fashion weeks sprouted even in B-class cities now, no clear criteria for selection of young designers for them, and many such industry specifics. Bridal wear is certainly a big business avenue for the Indian fashion world and top designers agree that no matter what they show on the ramp, they are making a lot of Indian wear for their customers.

Eventually, ‘Powder Room’ is insightful, informative, gripping and eye-opening. It gives you an all-round view, multiple perspectives of fashion world and what fashion means to different people. The author explores the “aspects of modern India through fashion”, while also offering a study on evolving fashion consciousness. Though she steers clear of the controversial topics, she does discuss the pitfalls and downside of the fashion world but gives enough examples of people who have made it and yet not lost their heads to the excesses.

I am not in a position to comment if she has done justice to the Indian fashion world, may be her contemporaries can comment better. But as far as it is about me, I had a great time reading this book. It opened surprising as well as interesting aspects of a world, which has not been too talked about in books. May be there are many more things to say but it is certainly a good beginning.

A must read for anybody interested in fashion world, fashion students as well as people who are interested in anthropology, culture and social change. It strengthens my belief that non fiction is an extremely interesting category to read.

P.S. I googled every reference that she throws in – whether people, books or articles. I also googled all those cover pages she talks about.

Image courtesy: Random House India website